Photo: China Youth Daily

 
Beijing on Saturday kicked off the world's first robot consumer themed festival, the E Town Robotics Consumer Festival, the Global Times learned from the event organizers on Sunday, a highly-watched event that experts and industry analysts view as a signal that new technologies are fostering diverse consumption scenarios in China, further enhancing the quality and resilience of domestic consumption. 

The groundbreaking launch ceremony took place on Saturday afternoon at Robot World in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA), a state-level economic and technological development zone and the city's first comprehensive robot exhibition center, with the festival running through August 17. 

The festival revolves around four major consumption scenarios and four key service systems, and will unfold simultaneously across six major commercial districts, including the Beijing Etrong International Exhibition & Convention Center, the Beijing World of Robots, the robotics industrial park in Beijing's Yizhuang, and four other nearby business areas, per a statement from the organizer.

To support the event, the BDA will issue exclusive consumption vouchers during the festival, offering individual consumers up to 1,500 yuan ($211) in subsidies for robot product purchases and corporate buyers up to 250,000 yuan, according to a BDA official cited by People.cn on Sunday.

This consumer festival is part of the upcoming 2025 World Robot Conference, which will be held from August 8 to 12 at the BDA, also known as Beijing E-Town. This highly-anticipated event will comprehensively showcase innovative applications of humanoid robots in diverse scenarios such as industrial manufacturing, healthcare and household services, according to the Chinese Institute of Electronics (CIE), one of the organizers of the event.

Chinese experts said the consumer festival is an innovative initiative aligned with China's vigorous efforts to promote robot technology innovation and industrial development, accelerate the cultivation of new quality productive forces, and effectively unleash domestic demand potential while fostering new growth points for service consumption.

Innovative spending scenarios

The Robot Consumer Festival introduces four major consumption scenarios, creating an integrated model of "scenario experience, instant sales and service delivery" to enable a one-stop "shop-while-you-explore" experience, per the CIE's statement.

The event targets corporate users, offline consumers and online shoppers, offering robot shopping experiences, specialty dining, cultural and creative products, and interactive check-in activities, the statement said.

For corporate users, the world's first embodied intelligent robot 4S store will offer over 50 products across seven categories, including medical, industrial, companion, bionic, humanoid bipedal, integrated and humanoid wheeled robots. 

This pioneering 4S store will make its debut during the 2025 World Robot Conference, moving a significant step toward the commercialization and popularization of intelligent humanoid robots, according to a previous statement from the Administrative Committee of BDA.

Additionally, the ongoing consumer festival features tailored activities and products for both offline and online consumers. For offline visitors, the event will showcase and sell over 100 products from 41 participating companies. 

On the online front, Chinese internet platform giant JD.com will launch a dedicated festival zone, offering 680 products from 63 brand stores across four categories: quadruped robots, bipedal robots, exoskeleton robots and educational companion robots. 

The consumer festival aims to shape a distinctive robot consumption identity, unleash dual vitality from both corporate and consumer sides, and achieve a dual boost in event influence and consumption conversion, said Liang Liang, deputy director of the BDA Administrative Committee, at a press conference on Saturday.

Consumers can enhance their sense of engagement and participation, injecting a lively atmosphere into the event, while also accelerating the practical application of the robot industry, Liang noted. 

"We hope the festival serves as a 'catalyst' and 'testing ground' to stimulate industry demand, lower the experience threshold, gather real feedback and drive industrial development," she added.

China has made new breakthroughs in technological advancements, industrial chain integration and application scenario expansion, further promoting the exploration of new tech-driven consumption scenarios and sustaining the momentum for high-quality consumption, Pan Helin, a member of the Expert Committee for the Information and Communication Economy under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

In 2024, China accounted for two-thirds of global robot patent applications, with a rich portfolio of proprietary core components, per the latest data from CIE. Breakthroughs in key technologies, such as large-scale robot models, intelligent collaborative control and human-machine interaction continue to emerge. 

Furthermore, China's industrial robot applications now span 71 major industry categories and 236 subcategories in the national economy, with manufacturing robot density ranking third globally. 

Service robots have seen rise in penetration in areas such as household services, warehousing and logistics, commercial services, elderly care and medical rehabilitation, per the CIE statement.

Pan believes humanoid robots will play a pivotal role in various application scenarios, serving as a proactive engine for driving new consumption, fostering new industries, expanding employment and accelerating the development of new quality productive forces and industrial upgrade.

Fueling sustained growth

Vigorously boosting consumption is a key focus of China's economic agenda this year. A Political Bureau meeting of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on Wednesday stressed the need to effectively unleash potential in domestic demand and encourage goods consumption, while fostering new growth drivers of services consumption.



The National Development and Reform Commission stated on Friday that it will intensify efforts, implement concrete measures and optimize services to expand consumption, with a particular emphasis on vigorously developing AI-driven household consumption, innovating application products, improving consumption infrastructure and promoting a virtuous cycle of consumption and investment. 

These efforts are inseparable from technological innovation, Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

"Technological innovation not only drives continuous product quality improvements and optimizes consumer service experiences but also enables more diverse interaction models across the consumption supply chain," Zhou said.

Meanwhile, China is rapidly advancing its "AI plus" initiative. On July 31, a State Council executive meeting reviewed and approved the opinions on deeply implementing the "AI plus" Initiative, calling for the large-scale commercial application of AI. 

Zhou emphasized that innovation's role in promoting consumption is long-term and sustainable, as enterprises create demand through technological breakthroughs and product upgrades, achieving a dynamic balance between supply and demand, optimizing economic structures, and becoming a new driver of growth. 

China's balance between supply and consumption is adjusting rapidly, with its vast market demand providing ample space for consumption, according to Zhou. 

According to the latest official data, retail sales of consumer goods in the first half of the year grew by 5 percent year-on-year, with final consumption expenditure contributing 52 percent to GDP growth, serving as the primary engine of economic growth. The Ministry of Commerce also highlighted the thriving trend of new consumption models, noting the popularity of "IP plus consumption" and "AI plus consumption." 

The rapid development of the tech industry, represented by AI and humanoid robots, will make consumption more diverse and high-quality, expanding consumer choices and enhancing consumption resilience, thereby contributing to high-quality economic development, Zhou said.